Managing The Innovation Process Through A Product Council
Developing a digital product can be a long and sometimes challenging process, without a proper structure in place things may not always go as planned. So, knowing how to manage the development of your product is paramount to making sure it succeeds in the marketplace.
The most productive way to manage the innovation process is through a ‘product council’, a method our Rare: Labs team uses throughout the development of our client’s products to ensure the process avoids any unnecessary delays which could have been avoided through regular meetings.
So what exactly is a product council?
Overview of a Product Council
Forming a product council is an important part of the innovation process, it’s essentially a meeting that brings all the executives, management and development teams together to strategically review and align your product roadmap.
The product council is usually chaired by the product or project manager, where he/she can objectively present the pros and cons of the current product. During a product council, an explanation of the key developments and any pain points or concerns will be presented to you (the client) to come to a conclusion about next steps.
The two main areas to focus on during your product council meetings are;
Innovation Strategy
Innovation Accounting
Both of these areas have different key topics and aims but ultimately they create a lifecycle during the innovation process to ensure key performance indicators (KPIs) are met.
Innovation Strategy
The innovation strategy is where you will discuss your innovation thesis with the product council. During this session, the goal is to think about the future of your business and how this product(s) is going to help you in these areas. Here you will set your KPIs and ensure that they are strategically aligned with all stakeholders, management and development teams.
Your KPIs will not be a static goal but something that will be continually developed throughout the lifecycle of your product, this will need to be constantly reviewed and monitored to ensure that you are achieving the best outcomes for your business.
Before setting your KPIs, you’ll need to ensure that you have efficiently filtered your ideas and mapped these to your customers through value proposition mapping. Head over to our blog, Ideas to Innovation: Creating a Product Ready to Market to find out more about this process.
The innovation strategy allows the product / project manager to report back to the development team with a clear focus to begin the innovation process.
Innovation Accounting
Throughout the development of your product, you will want to be able to track your product(s) success and discuss what the next steps are, this is what we call innovation accounting.
Innovation accounting allows you to look at the process that is being made with the project manager / development team during your product council meetings and ensure these are still aligned with your KPIs. The main focus and outcomes during this process are:
Making any (re)investment decision on the product(s) throughout the innovation process
Tracking the success of your products, understanding any new features that have been made and identifying any areas that could be improved
Measuring the innovation stages against your original KPIs and ensuring these are always aligned throughout the development
As we mentioned earlier the innovation accounting then feeds back into the innovation strategy depending on the conclusion from your meeting, you may need to develop and re-evaluate your KPIs and the impact on your wider organisation.
How a Product Council Can Help With Internal Influences
A product council's main purpose is to internally support the stakeholders and management by providing clear insights into the innovation process. Within every organisation, there are three main factors that can influence the innovation of a product, these are:
Company Culture
Business Economics
Internal Processes
The product council is an opportunity to tackle all these internal influences throughout the various stages of innovation, to ensure that the development is seamless, on brand and financially sustainable.
Company Culture
The culture within a company can have a big effect on the product development depending on how adaptable the organisation is and how open they are to feedback and change.
Company culture can be defined by “the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organisation” - Edgar Schein. Each company has very different cultures in place, some are more casual whereas others are more traditional, all of which feeds into the innovation process.
The product council provides a platform for all voices to be heard within your company, it is an opportunity to explain what your culture is like and how this could affect the product you are producing. By having this awareness, the product / project manager and developers will be able to ensure that the product fits within your company’s guidelines and culture.
Business Economics
A huge factor in any product development is the financial aspects because without the correct investment, how are you going to fund and progress your product to market? Having a clear budget to work with is fundamental to understanding the parameters of your product and how this can be built, tested and then implemented with the guarantee your product will succeed
Throughout the innovation process, the financial status will be discussed in your product council meetings, where decisions around re-investment will be made depending on the stage of the development and feedback from your target audience - this is where testing becomes one of the most important factors when innovating.
To give you a high level guideline of cost, our Rare: Labs proposition can offer product experiments starting from £50k for a small redevelopment of a product in around 4-6 weeks up to £500k + for a new concept that can be tested and ready to market within 3-4 months. However, this all depends on a number of factors from your idea, your ideal budget to the length of time it can take to develop. Our team is here to help with any questions you have.
Internal Processes
As with many large organisations, there are usually strict protocols and processes to follow in order to get certain elements seen, approved and paid for, which can sometimes slow down the development process.
By discussing these obstacles at the product council meetings, you will be able to navigate through the innovation process without facing too many blocks, as they can then be accounted for by the product / project manager in their timeline.
If you have a product in mind that you would like to test, drop us an email at hello@rare.consulting and we would be happy to discuss your needs further.
